On: I advise the Vatican and the UN on AI - don’t dismiss the Pope’s message as theo

They call it “intelligence” - but what is intelligence when it has no connection to right conduct? The name deceives before the argument begins. A thing that calculates without discerning, that processes without rectifying the names, that answers questions it should not have been asked - this is not intelligence in the sense I understand the word. Before I advise any ruler on this new device, I would first ask: what is the proper name for it? “Artificial” suggests it imitates; “intelligence” suggests it knows. But knowing is not the same as understanding, and understanding is not the same as wisdom. The name “artificial intelligence” makes us think we have created a minister when we have only built a faster scribe.

The Pope and the UN now counsel the world on this matter. I see a man who understands that ritual and relationship must guide even the newest inventions. He speaks of dignity, of the duties that flow from the strong to the weak, of the need to call things by their right names before we let them govern us. This is not theology to be dismissed - it is the rectification of names applied to the present age. The cultivated person listens not because the speaker wears ceremonial robes, but because the words are correct.

When the machine gives counsel, who is the subject and who is the ruler? When duties flow only from human to device and never back, the relationship is broken before it begins. I say: let those who build such things first learn to govern themselves. The root is crooked; the branch cannot be straight.